


我喜欢你

by inmylife



Series: mall au [2]
Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Confessions, M/M, everyone loves baejin, im really not entirely solid on my characterization of guanlin honestly, tbh who wouldn't, there is a suspicious lack of pandeep fic on this site so i have to write some dont i, this is set in the mall again whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 02:04:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13261293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: The other reason he likes working at Sephora is because H&M is right across the hall and upstairs, meaning that if he has the right angle he can watch Guanlin.





	我喜欢你

Jinyoung likes working at Sephora. Mostly because working at Sephora doesn't entail him actually having to interact with people, just letting the noonas (and Eunbin) practice their makeup on him and very occasionally working the register.

 

(He's wondered, on occasions, if there's a higher position of power than the one Seulgi is in, and if he's in danger of getting fired if that person ever shows up. Then he remembers that his noonas, and Eunbin, would never let that happen. They like using him as a palette too much.)

 

The other reason he likes working at Sephora is because H&M is right across the hall and upstairs, meaning that if he has the right angle he can watch Guanlin.

 

He's liked Guanlin from his first day at the mall, from the first time he saw the younger Taiwanese boy wreaking havoc with his friend Seonho despite not having a full grasp of the Korean language. Not that you need a full grasp of Korean to wreak havoc, though - Jinyoung's seen enough of Minghao and Felix to know that.

 

Guanlin is so… happy. Confident. What Seulgi would call 4-D and what Eunbin would call a pain in the ass. He's physically attractive, too, of course, and makes tripping over his own two feet all the time seem charming. And he's sweet. To all his hyungs and noonas.

 

(Seonho, though, is another story. His coworker Eunwoo is close with Dajeong from the H&M, and he's heard so many secondhand horror stories about the hyper 02-liner trying to go and bother Hwang Minhyun at the Macy's.)

 

Jinyoung really likes Guanlin. There's just one problem - he's pretty sure Guanlin's dating Seonho.

 

They're always together, always sharing a little smile, always making a mess. Jinyoung doesn't know how he could compete with Seonho - Guanlin should have someone fun, someone like himself. Not someone shy like Jinyoung.

 

So Jinyoung is content to watch.

 

+

 

"You seem down," Meiqi comments to him one day, setting her eyeshadow case back onto the break room table. "Are things okay? Who do we need to fight?"

 

"It's fine," Jinyoung mumbles. "Just finish this, noona."

 

"That means it's either your anxiety or Guanlin," the Chinese girl observes, "and since you don't seem tense so much as melancholy, that means it's Guanlin." He doesn't question Meiqi's assessment. He's been working here for a year now, so she knows his tells - she's right. "Relax your face," she tells him. "We can chat while I finish, since you seem to want me to so badly."

 

"What if I don't want to chat," he asks her, but Meiqi clearly doesn't care.

 

"What's up, Jinyoung, seriously." she says flatly. "You've been more out of it than usual lately."

 

And suddenly Jinyoung starts very much needing to cry.

 

"We can have this conversation," he gets out, "but not until you finish my eye makeup, because then I'll mess it up and you'll be mad." Meiqi sighs, doesn't push it, continues to spread color onto Jinyoung's face.

 

After a few minutes, she opens the door. "Eunwoo, c'mere! How do you like this?"

 

The other girl pokes her head through and immediately gasps. "Jinyoung-ah, you're so cute," she informs him. The smile lighting up her face reminds Jinyoung a little of the expression people get around small children or their pets. She takes a hand mirror from their pile on a shelf nearby and smacks it into his hand.

 

It looks better on him than usual. Given that he's just a test drive for most of their musings, he doesn't generally expect much, but the tones in these make him look soft and vivacious.

 

He lets Meiqi take some pictures and then, trying to hold off the Guanlin conversation as long as possible, he goes to wash his face.

 

"You're not getting out of this one, Bae Jinyoung," Meiqi tells him.

 

"Getting out of what?" Eunwoo inquires.

 

"We need to talk about Guanlin."

 

"Ah yes," sighs the blonde girl. "Lai Guanlin, he of tripping over his own two feet."

 

The H&M is an amusing store because most of the workers are these calm, collected older girls (older than Jinyoung anyway), and then there's Guanlin and Seonho wreaking havoc and just generally being awkward.

 

"I - I don't -" Jinyoung takes a moment to collect himself. "He just -"

 

"What, honey?" asks Meiqi.

 

"He - he came in here the other day and was talking to me," Jinyoung starts, already feeling his shoulders tense up because this is _such a stupid thing_ to be upset over, the tears are threatening to spill already and he feels so _pathetic_ , "a-and he said, like, oh you're such a good friend Jinyoung, _friend_ , right, and that's all I'll ever - listen, I know this is stupid, I _know_ , noonas, but I just - I really like him a lot, I guess, okay, and - "

 

"Hey, hey," Eunwoo says softly, walking over and placing her hands on his arms. "It's not stupid. I totally understand feeling so hopeless over a crush that it made me cry." She pulls him into a hug. "You know we aren't gonna judge you." He blinks a few tears out, letting Eunwoo comfort him. She's weirdly good at that. "You're alright." She steps back, holding him at arms' length. "You're washed up?" He nods. "Go get a drink of water and then take your break. Go chat with Minhyun oppa, I'm sure he'd love to see you and he's good at putting things in perspective anyways."

 

+

 

"Hyung?"

 

"What is it?" calls Minhyun from the rejected clothes closet.

 

"Um, hi, it's me? Jinyoung?"

 

"I can recognize your voice," Minhyun informs him, still in the physical (although not metaphorical) closet. "What's up, Jinyoungie?"

 

"Eunwoo noona told me to take my break, so… I'm here," he tells Minhyun.

 

This is a frequent position for them. Jisoo, Bomin, Seungmin, and Kyungwon know about Minhyun's habit of collecting dongsaengs so by this point Jinyoung only needs to walk into the store for one of them to tell him where Minhyun is. Jinyoung isn't always sat on a polyester stool in the second floor fitting rooms - sometimes it's in the kids section, or the little nook between the elevator and the escalators. Never anywhere near the first floor checkout line, though, because Jinyoung's gotten a lot better with people since he started working at Sephora but one time he was mistaken as an employee and froze up.

 

(Everyone tells him that it was Minhyun's fault for letting him behind the counter, but in Jinyoung's mind it'll always be at least kind of his fault. He avoids the registers in other stores like the plague, now.)

 

"I'm done," Minhyun says triumphantly, emerging from the closet with a number of discarded clothes on a rack. "People leave them in the dressing rooms as if they don't realize it makes more work for us.

 

"How - Minhyun hyung, what do I do about Guanlin?" Jinyoung confesses helplessly. "Eunwoo noona said to talk to you because you're good at problem solving, so, uh, as you know I really like Guanlin a lot and he'll only ever see me as a friend but I kind of want him to know but at the same time I'll just embarrass myself because he'll never like me back and all…" Jinyoung knows he has a tendency to word vomit, but he's known Minhyun since middle school and they've been friends pretty much the entire time, so he knows that Minhyun won't tell him off for it. Also, Minhyun is dating Jonghyun, whose anxiety until recently was very easily worse than Jinyoung's. Long story short, Minhyun can handle most of the dumb shit Jinyoung does.

 

"Walk with me," Minhyun orders him easily, pushing the cart of clothes outside and heading into the women's' section. Jinyoung obeys. "I… honestly, if I were in your situation I would just screw up the courage and tell him. I know that's not easy for everyone, though."

 

"I don't even know how to talk to him!" Jinyoung bursts out. He's frustrated, mostly at himself. "I don't ever really talk to him, he sort of just comes up and talks _at_ me."

 

"If you do seriously want help with that, I'd advise you to talk to Tzuyu," says Minhyun. "They're close - mostly because they speak the exact same dialect of Mandarin and so don't have to explain things to each other ever - but she's approachable. Especially if you're you. And not Chaeyoung or Dahyun." Jinyoung must look obviously unnerved, because Minhyun pauses from reshelving clothes to ruffle his hair. "She'll be nice to you. And if she isn't, Eunbin will make sure she gets her ass kicked." He quiets for a moment to head into another section and puts some more clothes back. "If you're willing to hang around five more minutes, I'll go with you."

 

+

 

Tzuyu greets them warmly, and once Minhyun has decided Jinyoung won't be murdered on his own he leaves to go chat with Daniel. They're settled at a counter, far enough away that neither of them will be able to hear but with a sightline such that Minhyun will be able to tell if Jinyoung needs rescuing.

 

"What do you need, Jinyoung-ah?" Tzuyu asks him comfortably, leading him over to a pair of small couches in the back. Honestly, if Jinyoung didn't love Sephora he would probably want to get a job here - these loveseats or whatever they are are comfy. "It's about Guanlinnie-dì, right? What's up with him?"

 

"I, um, I, ah." Jinyoung isn't sure how to proceed, and he stops meeting Tzuyu's eyes, looking down at his pants instead.

 

"You like him," she supplies, but not in the sly way that Eunwoo would. Kindly.

 

"...yeah." Jinyoung mumbles, almost too softly to hear. "And I don't know how to talk to him and Minhyun hyung said-"

 

"Ah," Tzuyu breaks in, and when Jinyoung chances a glance at her face, he sees it alight with understanding. Her accent, when she talks, isn't as obvious as Guanlin's, but there are some words they form the same. Filler words such as these, where the linguistic gaps aren't as important. "Does he talk to _you_ at all?" she asks, and _god_ is Jinyoung relieved because he doesn't have to explain the difference between talking _at_ and talking _to_ , which is a very important difference when it comes to Guanlin.

 

"Yeah, he does. We've met. We're friends, I think. I think," he says doubtfully. "He talks to me about stuff. We… we talk, sometimes." It's difficult to explain, this balance they have, where it's mostly Guanlin talking and sometimes silences that neither of them feels any need to fill and occasionally conversation between the two. As far as Jinyoung can tell, Guanlin considers him something of a friend.

 

"So when you say you don't know how to talk to him, you mean…" Tzuyu prompts helpfully.

 

"I should tell him, but I don't know what to do… I think he should know," Jinyoung says decisively, even though he's only really just come to this conclusion himself. "If someone liked you, you'd want to know, right? Even if you liked somebody else?" Tzuyu gets an odd look on her face, but it's only for a moment. "So, I think - I think I should tell him."

 

"I'll be honest, Jinyoung-ah, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to help with that," Tzuyu confesses. "I guess… and now I'm speaking as your noona, not as your Guanlin consultant. Pick a day to do it, and you have to do it on that day. Plan ahead, I guess, and practice? Like, in the shower, to Minhyun oppa, to your stuffed animals if you have any. It's the only reason I ever ended up confessing to Sana unnie in high school." She pauses for a moment, contemplates something. "That, and Jeongyeon unnie's nagging. Jeongyeon unnie is a good mom."

 

Jinyoung nods. "Thanks, noona."

 

Tzuyu stands and walks over to Minhyun and Daniel, and Jinyoung follows. "Hwang Minhyun oppa, I am here to return your dongsaeng." Jinyoung waves brightly. "Yah, these kids," she continues. "I love them, but they're so…" Daniel raises an eyebrow and gestures toward Jinyoung. "Oppa, I'll text you," she says, turning around and shortly walking away.

 

"Hey, Daniel hyung," Jinyoung tells him. Daniel nods. "You changed your hair." It's no longer blonde, it's more… grey. It's a good look for him, in Jinyoung's opinion. Better, at least, than the pink hair his hyung had sported when they'd first met.

 

"You like it?"

 

"I still think you would look best with normal-colored hair," Jinyoung answers. "But it's definitely better than the pink."

 

Daniel wrinkles his nose. "We do not speak of the pink."

 

+

 

He chooses to do it that next Thursday, and because Jinyoung is Jinyoung, he comes into work a mess of nerves.

 

"You okay, kiddo?" asks Seulgi, catching him by the arm. Jinyoung barely manages to nod. "No, you're clearly stressed. Come here." She pulls him behind the counter. It's before the customers come in, 8am in the middle of the August before Jinyoung's senior year. "Talk to me."

 

"I'm supposed to tell Guanlin today," he almost-whispers.

 

Seulgi nods. "It's scary, kiddo. Fighting!" Jinyoung smiles strainedly as Eunbin walks up.

 

"Today's the day, huh?" she asks. Jinyoung nods. "I would ask what you're so worried about, but I know you're a worrier. But in all honesty, who's to say Guanlin won't like you back?"

 

"Well, you see, uh." Jinyoung looks down at Eunbin - there's only a three inch difference between them, not nearly as pronounced as with, say, Meiqi - "I'm pretty sure he's dating Seonho?"

 

And Eunbin, of all things, starts to laugh.

 

Jinyoung feels his eyes go wide. Eunbin forces down her laughter for the most part and gets out, "You think he's dating Seonho?"

 

"Y...yeah?" His voice is breathy, he hears rather than feels it hitch on the second beat of his reply.

 

"Seonho's straight, honey."

 

Silence.

 

"Wait -"

 

"Yeah. He's dating that girl, Ahna - Ahnatcha - Natty," Eunbin sighs, finally giving up on pronouncing the name. "The Thai girl in his grade. Somi's friend."

 

"You shouldn't have told me that," Jinyoung says quietly.

 

"Why not?"

 

"Because now I'm going to think I have a, a chance," he says, voice trembling, hands shaking. "And I - I _don't_ , because I'm not, I'm _not_ , you know, people don't - I'm shy, and anxious, and unless they're _actual saint Hwang Minhyun hyung_ no one wants to put up with that, and I don't - he wouldn't - Guanlin never will. But it's there, now, and I -" and now he's crying, fuck it, _fuck_ , why does he _always_ have to fucking _cry_ , stupid Jinyoung, _stupid_ …

 

"Oh, I, um. Uh. Seulgi unnie!" he hears Eunbin SOS dimly.

 

And there are arms around him, Seulgi's arms, and one of her hands is running gently through his hair while the other rubs gently up and down his back. "Breathe, kiddo," she says softly. "It's okay. Breathe."

 

Jinyoung's noonas are the best and he doesn't know what he'd do without them.

 

Seulgi takes him to the back room and tells Eunbin, "go set up by yourself because you caused this mess," and at some point Meiqi shows up with a bottle of water, and Eunwoo makes an appearance bearing a voice message from Tzuyu demonstrating how to say "I like you" in Taiwanese Mandarin Chinese.

 

(Meiqi, it's worth mentioning, is no help, because they don't speak Mandarin in Hainan. She does make him practice once he's calmed down a bit, though, and according to her he sounds at least a little like someone from Taiwan so he supposes that's good enough.)

 

Eventually it's him and Meiqi sitting on the couch in the back room, her arm around him. "So Seulgi unnie told me the stuff you said earlier. About, like. People not liking you."

 

"Yeah."

 

"You don't think Jonghyun oppa and Minhyun oppa are some kind of fluke, do you?" Jinyoung makes a noncommittal noise. "Ok, well…" Meiqi clearly has to rethink her train of thought. "Either way, how could someone not love you? You're the sweetest thing ever, Jinyoung-ah." He makes a face. This is clearly not true.

 

Eunbin very suddenly sticks her head into the back room. "Jinyoung, if you aren't ready then you need to be, because Guanlin is here." He exchanges a panicked look with Meiqi, who - traitor! - merely whispers, fighting!, and shoves him off the couch. Eunbin pulls him out to the counter as Jinyoung does his best to quell the fear accumulating in his stomach.

 

Guanlin is sitting on the Sephora checkout counter, hands clasped behind him, looking nervous. Eunbin gives Jinyoung an encouraging smile and slips off somewhere. Maybe to hide with Meiqi in the back room, maybe to eavesdrop with Eunwoo, maybe to bother Jieqiong in the Bath & Body Works. Who knows.

 

"Hyung," says Guanlin. "There's something I have to tell you."

 

Guanlin knows, is the only thing that Jinyoung can think. Guanlin knows, and he thinks it's weird, and he's here to tell Jinyoung to back off.

 

"Okay," Jinyoung says, nevertheless, trying and somehow succeeding to keep most of the nervousness out of his voice.

 

"I, um, I really don't know how to say this, not because I'm bad at Korean - well, yes because I'm bad at Korean but also… whatever. I, uhm, I like you, Jinyoung hyung. So that's why I, like, ramble to you all the time, I know you probably think I'm annoying but, uhm, and I know you're dating Meiqi-jiě but I just think you should know."

 

Wait. Wait, wait, wait, hold on a minute.

 

_What?_

 

"Since when am I dating Meiqi noona?" Jinyoung asks incredulously. He was nervous before, but now he almost wants to laugh. Him and Meiqi?

 

"Well… you guys are really close! She always has her arm around you and stuff, and… and Eunbin noona said you guys were in the back room together…"

 

"It's because we're friends, Guanlin-ah," says Jinyoung. He feels a little exasperated. "But it's not too ridiculous since I thought you were dating Seonho until Eunbin so kindly informed me-"

 

"You thought I was dating _Seonho_?" Oh, this just gets messier and messier.

 

"I, uh. Yeah. And also, you're not annoying. I like listening to you. In fact," and goddamnit Jinyoung, the nerves are back, but _Guanlin just said he liked him_ so what does he have to lose now, "wǒ xǐhuān nǐ."

 

There's this funny little pause.

 

"Where did you learn to say that in Chinese..."

 

"Tzuyu noona."

 

"Oh."

 

And then they're kissing on the counter.

  
Jinyoung has decided that he really, _really_ likes working at Sephora. Because it gave him the opportunity to fall in love with Lai Guanlin.

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place about two months before "it's my favorite business interaction". the two fics are entirely independent of each other. 
> 
> if you liked this you can hmu on tumblr got-me-feelin
> 
> for bonus points, which jisoo seungmin and bomin work in the macy's? there's only one idol named kyungwon tho afaik. but take guesses at the other two
> 
> i have no idea if the mandarin translation is right btw if i've ghastly messed it up please help me


End file.
